Surf's Up!
by Quill of Molliemon
Summary: AU, crossover, falls after "Gold and Silver". Kushina travels with the professor to a foreign conference and has something of an adventure... Read, review, and enjoy!
1. Part I

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or Pokémon. If I did, I'd have a lot of money…but I don't. So don't bother suing, you won't get anything out of it.

**Notes:** (Crossover, could be a crack!fic if you want) Here there be Naruto characters and Pokémon monsters! This is a _short story_ which takes place after "Gold and Silver" (and the final part of "10 Things to Do With a Rod").

I hope that you enjoy it!

* * *

**Surf's Up!**

_Part I_

The sky was a dark gray and only getting blacker. The wind gusted stronger and stronger, carrying the growls of distant thunder. Angry waves foamed and crashed against the base of the cliffs.

But she wasn't worried; it was just another storm blowing through the straits.

Her only concern was finding a lum berry. The lumpy, hard-skinned, green berry could cure any ill and was hard to find as it took so long to grow and mature. She thought of them as her good-luck charm, and she needed a new one.

So far she'd come up with nothing. She'd searched the heart of the island and spiraled out towards the sheer cliffs and the sea. There had been a few lum berry _plants_, but no ripe berries to pick.

_There has to be a lum berry somewhere…I know it!_

And then there it was. A spindly lum plant was growing on the very edge of the highest cliff on the south end of the island. Hanging over the roiling sea was a single ripe berry.

_Success!_

The precarious location of the berry wasn't of much concern. She crept right up to the edge and scooted over until she was leaning against the long, thin trunk of the plant. Then she reached and reached for the berry, got a grip on it, and—

A lightning bolt ripped out of the black, boiling clouds and struck the cliff, exploding the rock face—

The solid ground under her feet was gone and she was falling, falling, falling…

_"Chaaaa—"_

_ Splash!_

_

* * *

_

Kushina stared out of the train car window as trees whipped by in a blur of green. Every few months or so Professor Sarutobi would go to some scientific conference or some speaking engagement somewhere and take at least one of his assistants with him. She'd always passed when he'd offered to invite her because she'd had to be home with Naruto. But now that he was away…there was nothing in the way of her going.

The professor was on his way to teach a seminar (along with several other professors from various countries) in Cove Town, a coastal city in Jungle Country. Most of their trip had been through the barren deserts of Wind Country so it was a nice change of pace to see green again. When the train stopped off at Cove Town, they'd be on the border of rainforest and beach.

She wouldn't have much to do on the trip. Mostly she just had to keep the professor's presentation notes and slides in order, make sure they stayed on schedule, and just be a general errand girl. The seminar was supposed to be three days long, and their stay would be paid for all week…so that promised a lot of free time.

It was going to be great…

However, one thing was weighing on her mind. Before she and Professor Sarutobi had left Konoha Town, Naruto had called home to tell her that he was in Oto City. He was out to challenge the city's gym to get the Serpent Badge.

_"Gym Leader Orochimaru is out of town,"_ he'd told her in his call. _"But he left a substitute in charge so the long hike here wasn't wasted. He's called 'Kabuto', he's got huge glasses and looks like a total nerd…and I bet his parents really had a thing for kabutos!"_

It was somewhat of a relief that he wouldn't have to fight Orochimaru. Kushina had met him once, long ago, and that had been more than enough for her. The man was clever, cunning, and absolutely cold-blooded, and she had a feeling that he would go out of his way to make Naruto miserable if they ever faced off.

But her relief was lessened by this "substitute" that was handling badge challenges. She'd never heard of this Kabuto person and could make no solid guesses about his personality, skill level, or strategies. If Orochimaru thought highly enough of him to leave him in charge, though, he couldn't be good news.

_He's been away from serious challenges a bit too long,_ she thought as she stared out the window. _He's a bit cocky with six of the eight badges that he needs. He probably thinks he can take anything on and win…but he forgets that gym leaders won't hold back against him anymore._

"Something on your mind?"

Kushina blinked and looked sheepishly over at the professor in the seat across from her. "Oh, maybe…"

"Naruto will do fine," the old man said with a smile. "He may suffer a setback or two but he won't give up until he achieves his aims."

"I know," she pouted. "I just wish he wasn't so set on taking down Orochimaru's gym. Even if Orochimaru isn't there…"

"Well, try not to worry and enjoy the trip," the professor suggested. "Should everything go smoothly, there won't be anything for you to really do at all."

"Hopefully," Kushina agreed and turned her gaze back out of the window.

She had more than this working vacation to enjoy. A few weeks back she'd survived another birthday and officially gaining another year of age. And then, a few days after that, Minato had sprung a surprise on her…

He'd asked her to marry him.

It had been horribly cheesy. There had been a luvdisc involved. And he hadn't had a ring handy as he couldn't find one that he thought she'd like.

_"Why ask me if you didn't have a ring? Not that I'm complaining or anything…but why?"_

_ "It's something that I wanted to ask you for a very long time, and I got tired of waiting."_

Kushina grinned faintly and fingered her _heart scale_ necklace.

_He's so sweet. It was cheesy, but I can live with that. It could've been much worse, after all._

Her grin widened slightly.

_Take that Aunt Asuka! I did find a man who'd marry me! And after I marry him, I'm going to find you and gloat!_


	2. Part II

**Surf's Up!**

_Part II_

Cove Town actually managed to exceed her expectations. The air was warm and tropical, the greenery was lush and exotic, and the hotel that she was staying at with the professor was on a hill overlooking the whitest, sandiest beach and bluest clearest ocean water that she'd ever seen. The hotel was pretty high class—not five stars, but definitely four—and their adjoining rooms faced the sea (although they weren't on the ground floor, they were on the third).

_This must be a really awesome seminar to have the money to put us up in a place like this,_ Kushina mused as she dumped her suitcase and backpack beside the bed and started poking around the room. _I wonder if fishing's allowed down on the beach or if I have to hike to a fishing spot… Either way, this trip is going to be great!_

After unpacking her possessions and arranging them to her satisfaction, she peeked through the door that connected her room to the professor's room.

"So professor, anything planned for this afternoon?"

"No," the old man chuckled as he stuffed his pipe. "This afternoon we rest, tomorrow we get a tour of Cove Town and its surroundings, and the day after is when the seminar begins." He waved her off. "Go enjoy the beach while I rest my old bones."

"You don't want to come?" Kushina asked.

"No, the long train ride did me in," Professor Sarutobi sighed ruefully. "It's a horrible thing to get old."

"Alright," Kushina said and withdrew back into her room. "I'll see you at dinner!"

The red-head wasted no time in changing into her blue one-piece bathing suit, applying sunscreen, gathering her beach things, and heading down to the beautiful beach. She grinned at the feel of the soft white sand between her toes and let Uzu-chan loose to enjoy the wonderful weather with her. Finding the beach directly behind the hotel to be too crowded with tourists (and pasty, nerdy scientists) she and her vaporeon strolled along the surf line in search of a place with a lot fewer people.

Wingulls and seagulls wheeled high above, floating on the sea breeze like kites. As she and Uzu-chan reached the thin edges of the crowd she could see krabby scuttling over the sands, carrying off fallen coconuts and various bits of candy, wrappers, glass bottles, and whatever other stuff the tourists dropped. And when she looked out over the tiny waves she could see magikarp and finneon jumping out of the water.

_This place is like paradise…_

It was a far cry from what she was familiar with on the more northerly shores of Whirlpool Country. The beaches of _Uzu no Kuni_ were rocky and strewn with boulders and most beaches were swallowed by low tides, leaving only rocky cliffs. While the weather could be warm in the summer, it was a blustery place and it could get cold enough in winter for it to snow at times. And then the offshore rocks, strong currents, and tides spawned the whirlpools for which the country was named.

Whirlpool Country was a hard, gray-tinged place…not like Jungle Country at all.

The further she got from the hotel, the more cluttered with flotsam and jetsam the beach became. Hotel employees probably raked all the seaweed and driftwood away from the hotel beach for the comfort of their guests, but further out they didn't bother. Kushina didn't mind; she loved beach-combing.

"Isn't this beach great, Uzu-chan?" she asked as she picked through a tangle of green seaweed.

The vaporeon barked in agreement as she batted at the dangling seaweed like a cat with yarn.

"Look at all this stuff," Kushina muttered as she looked further down the beach at all the things washed ashore. "There must've been a storm recently. Look at all the jellyfish and tentacool…"

The jellyfish just looked pathetic laying limply on the sand. Tentacool were a bit sturdier and only those that were hopeless tangled in stuff remained on the beach; the rest had probably already crawled back into the sea on their own. Kushina freed a few of the pokémon and carefully tossed them back into the water, wary of _poison sting_ attacks.

"Hmm?" She paused in feeling through another clump of seaweed and pulled out a curious green lump. "…A lum berry? What's this doing here?"

Uzu-chan's cry distracted her from thinking about it and Kushina walked over to see what her pokémon had found. A patch of yellow peeked through a clump of kelp tangled around a weathered wooden board. Moving the aquatic plants aside, she found a limp pikachu laying on the sand.

"Oh…it must've drowned."

It happened sometimes, especially with non-water type pokémon caught up in storms. The poor thing had probably gotten swept off the beach in the storm and drowned in the rough seas when it couldn't get to safety. It was sad, but that was a part of nature and it happened all the time all over the world.

"Poor thing…"

She fingered its lightning bolt tail, which was notched, creating a heart shape and indicating that it was female. Then the "dead" pikachu moved, coughed, and opened its blue eyes. That caught her attention immediately.

From a distance, pikachu eyes looked all black. Close up, it was clear that their eyes were dark brown. She'd never seen one with _blue_ eyes before.

"Well, hello!" Kushina smiled. "I was afraid you were dead there for a minute."

The electric mouse blinked up at her, dazed.

"You should be more careful in storms," she scolded, wagging her finger at the little yellow creature.

The wild pikachu flinched, and then fixed her gaze on the lum berry Kushina was still holding.

"Oh, was this yours?" The red-head offered the green berry to the monster mouse. "You want it back?"

The monster mouse slowly plucked the berry from her fingers and cradled it to its chest like a precious treasure.

"There you go." Kushina glanced up at the bright sun and frowned. "It's a bit hot out here, isn't it? Let's get you moved to the shade."

She picked up the electric mouse before it could protest, careful not to squeeze it, and moved it off the sandy beach and into the cool shade of the palm trees. Placing it at the base of one of the trees she backed off before the stunned creature could decide if it wanted to zap her or not. Kushina smiled at the befuddled creature and waved.

"You be careful now."

She returned to the water's edge and, after saying some sort of good-bye, Uzu-chan joined her.

"There's our good deed for the day," Kushina grinned as she pressed her toes into the wet sand. "Now let's go see if we can't find a good place to fish."

She didn't have her rod with her, just a beach bag with a towel, sunscreen, sunglasses, pokéballs, and a water bottle, but it wouldn't hurt to scout out spots for later. As she strolled along the warm sands with Uzu-chan, she inhaled the salty scent of the sea. Looking out over the waves, she spied an island that was barely more than a smudge on the horizon.

_I wonder what's over there…_

"Hello there, Sexy. What are you doing out here all by yourself?"

Kushina stiffened, and turned to find a man several yards down the beach, fishing in the surf with a golduck at his side. He was tanned from countless days out in the tropical sun and dressed in the usual sort of beach bum attire: frayed shorts, obnoxious tropic shirt, sunglasses, and a straw hat. There was a leering sort of smirk on his face and while she couldn't see his eyes because of the sunglasses she knew he was checking her out in the rudest way.

"Excuse me?" she snarled, while Uzu-chan hissed at the rude fisherman.

"What?" the man chuckled. "You're good-looking; a man can't help himself but admire you."

She shifted her small beach bag to try and block some of his view and wished that she'd thought to wear a pair of shorts over her suit. "Buzz off!"

"Taking a nice vacation after a messy divorce?" the man guessed as he made another lazy cast into the saltwater.

His voice sounded vaguely familiar. His attitude was unpleasantly familiar. And then she placed him in her memory and grimaced.

"Ando, shut the hell up."

In childhood, they'd been friends; best buddies almost. But when she'd run into him by chance around age sixteen, he was very different. Puberty had turned her cool friend into a horny, over-sexed teenage boy with a repugnant attitude. He'd hit on her then—which had grossed her out because he was almost like an extra brother to her—and when she'd refused his advances he'd become a nasty jerk.

_He doesn't seem to have matured with age,_ she thought sourly as he lowered his sunglasses to get a better look at her. _I bet he hangs around here and hits on hot tourist chicks all year round. I wonder how many STDs he has…_

"Have we met?" Ando drawled, squinting at her. "I'm sure that I would remember a sweet face like yours…"

Kushina fought the urge to walk up to him and sock him in the mouth. "Last time we spoke, you called me a frigid bitch tomboy and insinuated that I was a lesbian because I wasn't interested in you."

"Eh?" It took him several minutes of what looked like hard thinking to dredge that unhappy week up in his memory. Then it looked like he'd bitten into a super sour lemon. "Oh… Kushina. …Hi."

"Good-bye," Kushina muttered and turned to walk back towards the hotel. "C'mon Uzu-chan."

As she and her vaporeon started to leave, Ando's golduck zipped in front of them and blocked their path. "So, you're just going to leave, huh? No one's heard from you in over a decade, not even your family."

That made her frown. "That's funny. I send at least one letter a year home." She turned back to eye Ando suspiciously. "They should've heard from me…unless the postal system is broken."

"They haven't heard from you," Ando shrugged. "Every time I swing back to _Uzu no Kuni_ to visit my folks your brothers ask me if I've seen you."

"My father doesn't ask?"

"Nah, he doesn't talk about you." Ando pulled his hook out of the water and frowned when he found that the bait had been picked off it. "I don't think he's talked about you since you left."

Bitterness congealed in her stomach. _Figures…_

"What about you, hmm?" Ando inquired, a lecherous gleam in his dark eye. "Have you thought about me? Are you still figuring out what team you're on?"

Kushina flashed him a rude hand gesture. "I have a man, thank you very much. And the only time I ever thought about you was wondering what happened to your face."

Ando blinked. "Eh?"

"The last day that I was in Clay Town I saw that you had a black eye," she elaborated. "How did you get that?"

He snorted and put his sunglasses back on. "Some punk picked a fight with me for no reason."

"Hah!" she laughed. "I wish I'd seen that! Well I'm off…and don't follow me!"

"I won't, I won't," he grunted. "Not worth the trouble. You're taken already, anyway…right?"

"Very much so," she informed him, feeling almost giddy. Kushina turned around and waved the golduck away. "Out of our way, duck-face."

The golduck hesitated.

"Let 'em pass, Kappa," Ando sighed.

The blue duck monster shrugged and ambled back over to its master's side.

Kushina adjusted her beach bag and strode back to the hotel. She made note of her location as she hurried while trying not to look like she was hurrying so that she wouldn't come down the beach so far again. And she made a mental note to wear shorts on the beach unless she was going to go swimming.

_It's a pity, he used to be a nice guy…but now he's just a creep._

_

* * *

_

Hiruzen Sarutobi puffed on his pipe in his hotel room and gazed out the window at the blue tropical sea. It was one of the nicest locales he'd been to in a long time. Most seminars and conferences he'd attended or spoken at had been in heavily urbanized metropolises. But as wonderful as this trip promised to be, nagging worries would probably keep him from fully enjoying it.

Itachi, the Uchiha spy, always had little information to send him regarding the Akatsuki Syndicate. Team Sound was far more active, usually did the dirty work for the more secretive group. The major players in Akatsuki rarely ever gathered together and their leader—a mysterious man called "Pein"—never appeared in person. Whatever his goals were, they were still a mystery and probably wouldn't be known until shortly before they came to pass.

But the young gym leader had caught on to something recently. He'd visited Rain Country, a neutral place to meet with other Akatsuki members under the pretense of training, and caught wind of a rumor. He'd heard that the Akatsuki leader had acquired a genetic sample of some rare pokémon and was experimenting on it in hopes of creating a powerful living weapon.

The young man wanted to sabotage the project. Hiruzen reluctantly cautioned against such rash action. As shadowy as the Akatsuki Syndicate was, it seemed to have access to a lot of money and had many dangerous connections. If Itachi was caught or the sabotage was traced back to him his usefulness as a source of information would end. It was better to keep his head down and appear to be loyal while he kept spying.

_I wonder what rare pokémon they are experimenting with?_ The old man sighed, exhaling a hazy cloud of blue smoke. _Whatever it is, I'm sure that it's suffering. I doubt they care about ethical animal treatment if they want to make it into a living weapon._

There was a popping sound and a burst of light come out of one of his bags. It resolved itself in Enma, his infernape and one of his oldest companions. The burning fighting ape glanced around the room before shuffling over to the sliding door that led out onto the hotel room balcony and opened it, letting the warm tropical air in to wash out the pipe smoke.

"Aah," the professor sighed as he smelled the salt-tinged air. "Thank you, it's nice to have some fresh air."

The old man stiffly rose from the edge of his hotel bed and joined the infernape out on the balcony. The view of the beach and the sea was even more beautiful from the balcony than looking through the window. He leaned against the railing and puffed on his pipe until the tobacco burned out.

"It's been a while since we've traveled to such a nice place, hasn't it?"

Enma nodded and grunted in agreement.

_It's a pity that I couldn't arrange for Konohamaru to come along,_ the old Sarutobi thought as he watched tourists sunbathe and young families play in the waves. _He would have such fun here. Perhaps next time, when he's older…_

_

* * *

_

Hotaku was little, but someday soon he was sure that he'd be a pokémon master. So far, he only had a little sandshrew to his name, but soon that would change. Every day he and Sanders went hunting for the next piece of their future power team.

They combed the beaches and the jungle fringes all the time. But most of what they found were grass and water types—things that could hurt Sanders. So still it was just the two of them…

"Today is the day!" Hotaku declared. "Right Sanders?"

The sandshrew only sighed in response.

He'd been beaten a lot and had to run away from a lot of monsters. Grass pokémon sliced at him with leaves and water pokémon washed him away. After so much defeat, it was hard for him to be positive about anything.

"We'll do it." Hotaku paused and gazed out over the sea at the distant smudge of Thunder Island. "Today, we'll do it for sure!"

And then, as he turned back to walk along the beach, he saw it. A pikachu was peering out of the palm trees, staring out at sea and perhaps Thunder Island, too. He'd never seen one so close before. Normally they were far away from him and always able to escape before he and Sanders could get close enough to engage them in battle.

Today was their day.

"Sanders, get that pikachu with _scratch_!"

The boy grinned as his ground monster charged the electrical mouse. They'd talked about pokémon types in school, and he remembered how ground types couldn't be hurt by electric types. Sanders would win this one for sure.

His sandshrew blindsided the pikachu, who was still staring out over the sea, and landed a critical hit that knocked the wild creature over.

"Great hit!" Hotaku cheered. "Now use _poison sting_!"

Sanders obediently spat little purple poisonous needles at his foe and scored a direct hit. The pikachu squeaked in pain and fired off an electrical attack, but Sanders didn't feel a thing. And then the wild pikachu wobbled and looked sickly…like it had been poisoned.

"Yeah!" the boy cheered and dug around in his pockets for his extra pokéball. "That should be weakened enough. Now to…"

The wild pokémon shoved a little green berry into its mouth, chewed it, and then lost its sickly look.

"Aw, it cured itself," Hotaku pouted. "Well, it can't have another berry. Use _poison sting_ again!"

Sanders sucked in a breath to fire more little poison darts—

The wild pikachu was surrounded by a hazy blue glow and—

Water, water everywhere! A torrent exploded from nowhere, drenching Hotaku and knocking him over. When the water drained off and Hotaku recovered, he found Sanders fainted with swirly eyes and the wild pikachu gone. The soaked youngster blinked and turned around to stare at the almost glass-smooth sea yards away.

_That couldn't have been a wave…right?_


	3. Part III

**Surf's Up!**

_Part III_

The next day was just as beautiful as the day before. It had rained heavily during the night and into the early morning, but the tropical sun had quickly dried things out. When it was time to go on the tour of the town just after lunch, the weather was absolutely perfect.

Their tour group was made up of all the foreign speakers in the seminar and their guests. There were people from all over the world ranging from the dark-skinned people of Lightning Country to the pasty-pale people of dreary places like Rain and Water Country. And they all followed their native guide—a brown-skinned fellow with a startlingly white smile and square sunglasses—from point of interest to point of interest in Cove Town.

It wasn't the worst tour that Kushina had been on, but it wasn't the most interesting either. They mostly visited places that clearly catered to tourists and the historical areas that they were taken to were places she'd never heard of. That was the downside of being a "lesser" country; only natives knew much of anything about the land and the history and visitors from the "greater" countries (like Fire Country) were left clueless, if they cared about it at all.

_It would be the same if I were to take Minato to Whirlpool Country,_ she knew as she followed Professor Sarutobi. _He doesn't know any of the prominent families or their histories and accomplishments or what historical things happened. Everyone knows all the important things about the bigger countries, but smaller countries are only remembered for their tourist attractions…_

"And now," their guide, Sanmaru, said with a smile, "let us head up to the sky deck of the Sitrus Bank Tower (the tallest building in all of Cove Town) and get a more aerial view."

It wasn't the tallest building that Kushina had ever been in, but it easily beat out the low-laying sprawl of the rest of the town (except for the beachfront hotels). After the warm tropical air, the air-conditioned atmosphere felt almost frigid. The elevator was a bit small so it took several trips before Kushina could squeeze into the car for her ride up to the fifteenth floor.

The "sky deck" was the highest floor, and the smallest, and all made up of windows. It afforded a fantastic view of the ocean on one side, the dense jungle on the other, and the town rooftops in-between. Kushina had to restrain herself from pressing her face against the glass while Sanmaru educated the group on the high-quality hiking tours that regularly traversed the jungle trails.

_This place is really awesome…even if Ando hangs around here._ Her eyes drifted back to the beautiful sea and the distant smudge of an island out in it. _I wonder what that island is like…_

"…And over here," Sanmaru said, shifting the whole group's attention towards the seaside, "is the ocean, as you can see. There is plenty to do on the beach: you can sunbathe, swim, rent kayaks to paddle, buy a ticket on a sailboat—"

"Are there surfboards that we can rent?" a geeky-looking assistant asked.

"There are boogie-boards, but no surfboards," Sanmaru answered. "Our beaches don't get the kind of waves that you can surf."

"Is that an island out there?" an old woman researcher asked, adjusting her thick glasses.

"Yes, that is Thunder Island," the tour guide replied. "Legend has it that it was the inspiration for Masuda's most well-known children's book: In the Yellow Forest…"

Kushina's interest was immediately caught. She remembered that book well; it had been one of Naruto's favorites when he'd been small. It was a cute story about magical pikachu that lived in a forest on a special island. The pictures were adorable and included images of pikachu flying with the aid of party balloons and pikachu surfing on little surfboards.

"Are there tours to Thunder Island?" another person asked.

"No," Sanmaru said apologetically. "The sea is volatile that far from shore. The currents are strong and storms can spring up out of nowhere in minutes. And then all sides of the islands are steep cliffs that require climbing equipment or skilled pokémon assistance to scale." The man shook his head. "It is not a good idea to travel there, even by using _fly_. There is nothing but wilderness and no shelter should it rain…and being in the tropics, it _will_ rain."

_Too bad…_ Kushina thought as she cast the distant island one last look. _It could've been fun to visit._

She probably could've s_urfe_d out there with Tsunami, but with nothing that could _fly_ or use _rock climb_ all she would be able to do would be to circle the island.

_If only Ryuu was handy._

_ Or…_

_

* * *

_

She cowered in a clump of ferns, frightened, hungry, and miserable. She wished she'd never gone so far to get a lum berry. If only she'd staked out an unripe berry and waited until it was ready to be picked she wouldn't be in this mess.

A line of humans snaked through the jungle undergrowth barely three yards away and she hunkered down even more. The one in the front did most of the talking while the rest of the humans looked around and whispered to each other. Thankfully they didn't see her and, after a short eternity, they were gone and she was alone again.

Earlier, she'd thought about swimming home, but she was still exhausted from the storm and home was so very far away. So, after the human boy and his monster had attacked her, she fled away from shore in search of medicine berries and…perhaps another lum berry. Aside from a few barely ripe oran berries, her search was not going well.

_I want to go home. _She sighed and slunk out of the ferns._ Home is so much happier than here._

The trees were different here. The plants were different here. The pokémon were different here.

On her home island, there were only other pikachu. The air was always so full of happiness and love that any pichu that hatched there quickly evolved into more pikachu. Sometimes migrating bird pokémon would stop and spend the night on the island, but they never stayed; the island was only for pikachu.

Here there were more pokémon than she'd ever imagined existed. There were plant pokémon and bird pokémon and pokémon that climbed trees… There were just so many of them!

And there were humans. She'd heard about them, but never seen one up close before. They all looked so different and the way that they spoke…it was just so bizarre.

After squeezing through a tangle of thick vines, she spied a clump of sitrus berries—more than enough to fully restore her strength. She darted towards them and—

Sparks of electricity exploded around her, driving her away from the berries.

_:Those are ours! You stay away from them!:_

Nearby was a massive tree with holes in it. Peeking out of those holes and perched all over the branches were pikachu and pichu. But they weren't friendly like those she was familiar with at home.

They looked mean.

_:But, I just was going to take two—:_

_ :Those are ours!:_ a big male squeaked._ :You can't have them!:_

_ :Go away!:_ another chattered, sparks dancing on his red cheeks.

_:This is our territory!:_ a female cried. _:Go away!:_

_ :Go away!:_ the pichu chanted. _:Go away!:_

She sniffled and fled back towards the beach. It didn't matter that she wasn't recovered yet. She couldn't stay here. Ready or not, she was swimming back to her island.

_I hate this place! I want to go home!_

_

* * *

_

Kushina pursed her lips as she studied the PC screen in the local pokémon center.

_Decisions, decisions…_

After the tour of the town, the professor had joined up with a few of his colleagues for tea and heavy scientific discussion. Left to her own devices, she headed for the pokémon center to look into the possibility of visiting Thunder Island. But to make the possibility a reality, she needed to shuffle her usual line-up.

_Which one: Hoshi or Uzu-chan?_

Crusher and Slasher were her oldest and most loyal minions and she would never send them away. Hikari, with her electric powers, was extremely useful in defeating other water-type pokémon. And Tsunami was a powerful protector and her main mode of water transportation.

_Oh, what the heck, I'll send 'em both back…it's only for a little while, anyway._

She put a pokéball and dive-ball in the tray, entered a few commands into the computer, the balls disappeared, and a new pokéball appeared in their place. Kushina removed the capsule from the tray—

"Quit making stuff up, Hotaku," a boy standing a few feet from her grumbled. "Pikachu can't use water attacks."

"But it did!" a much younger boy whined. "I swear it did, Onii-san!"

The older brother rolled his eyes. "You watch too many cartoons."

"I do not!"

"Yeah, you do."

"No I don't!"

"Yes, you do."

"I don't!"

Kushina smiled slightly and left the two brothers to bicker. She left the pokémon center and, after a quick stopover at her hotel room to get dressed for the water, she headed to the beach. Once she found a bare stretch of sand that wasn't loaded with tourists she got down to business.

"Okay." She flicked the pokéball open. "Come out Briny!"

Briny was her wingull. She didn't use him often, and had equipped him with an _everstone_ so that he wouldn't evolve because…well, pelipper looked stupid (just like slowpoke, slowbro, and bibarel). But now that would change.

"Okay, Briny, give me that rock. You don't need it anymore."

She plucked the dull-looking evolution-blocking rock from where she'd tied it to the small water bird's back. Briny seemed to appreciate the small weight being removed from his body. Flapping his long, narrow wings he took off from his perch on her forearm and circled above her head.

_Okay, now that that's out of the way, it's time to pick some fights and get evolution going!_

"Hey, Briny, let's go out to sea and beat up some tentacool!"

Setting loose Tsunami, Kushina rode the gyarados away from the beach while her wingull skimmed over the nearly glass-smooth water. The water was very shallow close to the beach and it stayed shallow for yards and yards before gradually getting deeper. It was only after they cleared an offshore sandbar that they ran into anything interesting.

A little mantyke appeared first, and Briny speedily crushed it with a combination of _wing attacks_ and _quick attacks_. This seemed to piss off the mantyke's mommy as a full-grown mantine burst out of the water shortly after the win. It was a much closer match this time and Briny had to resort to using _roost_ twice to regain some strength in order to keep going. The wingull persevered and ended up winning…and that was all it took.

The seagull pokémon was engulfed in glowing light and nearly doubled in size. His wings grew broader and sturdier and his beak expanded into an enormous bill with a pouch underneath. When the glow vanished, his evolution to pelipper was complete.

"Hah!" Kushina cried and punched the air. "I knew you were close, I knew it!"

Now a quick little visit to Thunder Island was do-able. Pelipper were more sturdy than wingull with far more power and endurance. It would be easy for Briny to take her up from base of the island's cliffs to the green forest on top.

She had the time and the means to get there. She had a digital camera tucked away in her beach bag. A quick visit, a few pictures, and she could brag to Naruto how she had visited the "Yellow Forest".

"Onward!" she cried and pointed towards the island, which didn't look any closer than it had back on shore. "To Thunder Island!"

* * *

She was tired and sore, but she kept on swimming. The currents far from shore were strong and kept trying to suck her south and back to the beach, but she kept on swimming. There was no way that she could stand living away from the island, so she kept on swimming…because there was no other choice for her.

A few water pokémon had approached her on her long swim. Some were just curious, but most seemed unhappy that she was there. Whatever their intentions, they were easily driven away by a few weak electric shocks.

_I'm going home,_ she thought with determination. _I'm going home…_

She'd always had an affinity for water—it was the gift her of bloodline. Swimming came easily to her and she could even summon waves. If she wasn't so worn out and if the currents weren't so strong she would've reached her home island already.

_I'm almost there,_ she chanted to herself. _I'm almost there. I'm going to make it. I'm almost there. I—_

The water exploded underneath her, tossing her into the air.

_"Chaaa!"_

_ "Hwaaargh!"_

When she surfaced after slashing back into the sea, she found a blue serpentine beast staring her down. It looked so angry and so mean and it had an enormous mouth that opened so very wide. It snapped its massive jaws and roared again at her.

_:This is my water!:_ it bellowed furiously. _:Get out of my water or I will bite you!:_

_ :I'm sorry,:_ she coughed on the salt water. _:I just want to go home to the islan—:_

_ :Get out of my water!:_

Before she could protest again, the giant water snake lunged at her, intent on chewing her to pieces. With a panicked cry, she hit it with a _thunder bolt_ attack. The water beast wailed in shock and pain and started to _thrash_, frothing up the water. She tried to swim clear—

_Thwack!_

Its scaly, armored tail flipped her out of the water again and when she landed…she was facing _another_ serpent monster…

…With a human sitting on it.

_That _human, with the red hair, who had been…kind.

"Well hello there," the human said, blinking in surprise. "What are you doing all the way out here, huh?"

_:Pikachu should not be out here,:_ the other serpent, who had white whiskers instead blue, said calmly. _:Pikachu are not meant for the sea.:_

_ :Yeah, what are you doing out here all alone?:_ a pelipper who hovered nearby asked curiously. _:Did you fall off a boat? Did your trainer…ditch you?:_

_ :I…I'm going home,:_ she wheezed.

The mean water serpent stopped _thrashing_ and flopped around in the water, tired and confused.

_:What…where…? I'm gonna…! Where…there!:_

It turned and made a beeline straight for them snarling in rage.

_:More of you! Get out of my water!:_

"Briny, get our little yellow friend out of the way," the human commanded. "Tsunami, hit this jerk with _twister_!"

Before she could react, she found herself scooped up in the pelipper's _mouth_. And then the other serpent reared up and howled at the sky, summoning a waterspout. The _twister_ surged forward and slammed into the mean serpent and when it dissipated, it left the monster swirly-eyed and sinking under the waves.

"That taught him a lesson, eh?"

The pelipper spat her onto the white-whiskered sea serpent's back, in front of the human riding it.

"How did you get all the way out he—" The red-haired human stared into her eyes and started in surprise. "Oh, it's the pikachu from yesterday! Now I _really_ want to know how you got out here…"

_:I swam…:_ she said, shivering from cold and weariness.

_:All the way from the shore?:_ the pelipper asked in disbelief. _:With no help?:_

"Huh," the human frowned. "I guess we'll have to turn around and go back to the beach. We can't just ditch you out here in the middle of the ocean."

_:No,:_ she squeaked in panic and shook her head. _:No, no, I don't want to go back there!:_ She pointed frantically towards her home island. _:I want to go home! I want to go home to the island!:_

"You…want to go to Thunder Island?"

_:Yes!:_ she nodded vigorously. _:I want to go home!:_

The human studied her thoughtfully. "So…the storm swept you off Thunder Island and left you on the beach?"

_:Yes,:_ she nodded again. _:That's exactly what happened.:_

"Hmm…I guess we don't have to turn around then!" The red-haired human smiled and pointed towards the island. "Onward to Thunder Island…again!"


	4. Part IV

**Surf's Up!**

_Part IV_

To pass the time as Tsunami fought through the stiff currents, Kushina recounted many of her old adventures aloud. The wild pikachu looked to be nervous and uncomfortable and she hoped to calm and relax the creature with funny stories. If the electrical mouse stayed tense and became startled by something, it could discharge electricity and electrocute them all.

"…And Minato would always complain and call me a pikachu-thief," she said as her gyarados plowed through the choppy water. "He'd mutter it under his breath, but I'd still hear him. The silly boy," she smiled and fingered the _heart scale_ set into her necklace. "He's gotten used to Kiroi ditching him for me by now, though. When he needs her, she's always there for him."

She shifted on Tsunami's back to keep her leg from falling asleep and adjusted the jean shorts she was wearing over her bathing suit. Thunder Island was much closer now, and its high, sheer cliffs were very intimidating. It was no wonder that the tour guide, Sanmaru, had strongly advised against visiting here.

"It was really nice when Naruto called home and showed me that he got a pichu," she continued. "It was sort of like he was taking after his father…although he didn't know it at the time. Really, it's funny how things turn out sometimes."

The blue-eyed pikachu stared up at her intently. It was hard to know how much of what she was saying it understood. Researchers theorized that pokémon that lived in or around urban areas had better comprehension of human speech than those that lived in more rural areas, and those that lived in remote wilderness. But with no way to decipher the language of pokémon, there was no way to test out the theory.

"You don't have to worry about me catching you, you know," she told the yellow rodent. "I only go after water-types. I suppose you could say it's something of a family tradition; the Uzumaki family has run Uzu Town's gym for generations, and it's a water-type gym. There isn't any real chance that the gym would fall to me—I have four older brothers, and I'm a _girl_—but I like sticking to the personal restriction anyway. It's a challenge of sorts. And I like water pokémon." She tucked a lock of red hair that had escaped from her ponytail. "For me to take an exception, I'd have to find something really special…"

The female pikachu blinked at her.

"Say…do you think I could give you a name?"

This request startled the little yellow mouse, but she didn't seem to be against the idea.

"I was thinking 'Aoi'," Kushina explained. "It means 'blue' in the old language, and you have blue eyes, so…what do you think?"

The wild creature didn't appear to understand, so Briny flew closer and the pelipper croaked out some sort of explanation.

"So…?"

The little pikachu gave her a timid nod.

"Oh good," she grinned. "I was thinking 'Nami' at first because you were washed up by the waves, but that could get confusing with _Tsu_nami here."

Her gyarados rumbled and she patted the blue armored scales.

"So, it's nice to formally meet you," she joked with a wave. "My name is Kushina Uzumaki."

She held out her hand to the creature but, not knowing to shake it, the pikachu just sniffed her fingers and pawed at her palm. Kushina snickered and very gently clasped the pikachu's dexterous paw and gave it a little shake. The little yellow monster seemed fascinated by the handshake.

"Hmm… Oh look, we're here!"

They had finally reached the cliffs. This part of the island was very steep with no beach—rocky or otherwise—between it and the surrounding sea. But it wouldn't be a problem.

"Okay, Briny, it's time to test out those new-and-improved wings of yours."

Pelippers were big birds, but while they were sufficient for carrying children it was a bit tricky to give a full grown adult a lift. It took some arranging while Briny floated on the water's surface but Kushina found a way to sit on his back that worked. And then, with Aoi sitting in her beach bag, Briny strained his wings and slowly lifted out of the water.

_Here we go!_

It was a slow but steady ascent. Once they were high enough, Kushina recalled Tsunami to her pokéball so as not to leave the gyarados down in the water all alone while she visited. After a few minutes they cleared the cliff and landed safely on some level ground. It didn't look too inviting—a lot of rocks and some stunted trees—but they'd made it.

"Hah! We're here!"

Aoi immediately leapt out of her bag, looked around, and skittered through a gap in some boulders.

"Huh," Kushina blinked. "That was quick."

Shrugging, she put Briny away so that he could rest (sometimes recently evolved pokémon could grow fatigued easily until they adjusted to their new forms) and followed the trail that Aoi had scampered along.

The rocky, almost barren part of the island didn't last long. After Kushina slipped past the boulders, she found that the ground sloped downwards into a lush forest. Scanning what she could see of the island, it looked like it was bowl-shaped—like it was a crater or a collapsed volcano.

_Huh, it's like the island is a fortress or something._

Carefully picking her way down the slope Kushina came to a relatively flat stretch of ground…and there were pikachu _everywhere_.

They were coming out of the bushes. They were up in the trees. They were playing in the grass. There had to be at least twenty of them that she could see.

With so many of them, it was impossible to pick out which one was Aoi.

_But that's fine. She's home now. And now it's time for a few pictures, a little exploring, and then it's back to the mainland for me…_

_

* * *

_

Aoi was happy. She was safe and she was home. And everyone was happy to see her here.

They cried with joy when they saw her. They cuddled and groomed her and rubbed cheeks with her to share electricity. And they brought her food as she told them all about her unintentional adventure.

Everything she said only confirmed what they all thought: the wider world was an unhappy place.

_:See?:_ an older male chastised his unruly son. _:I tell you and tell you not to stray too far, and that's why. The world is unfriendly beyond our shores. Do you want to get lost out there?:_

_ :I won't get lost,:_ the younger scoffed.

_:You say that now…:_

Aoi turned away from the minor disagreement and looked for the human. Kushina was nice, and Aoi should do something nice for her. The red-haired human wanted to see the island so…perhaps she should show the visitor around?

She threaded her way through the crowd of her fellows and searched for the woman who had helped her. It took a while to find the human, but Aoi eventually located her by the lake at the heart of the island. The woman was fiddling with a small, boxy human device, occasionally holding it up to her face.

_:What are you doing?:_ Aoi asked as she tugged at her ear.

Kushina paused and glanced down at her. "Aoi?"

The pikachu nodded.

"Hold still for a minute, please…"

Aoi blinked and sat still while the woman held up the square object again.

_Click!_

"There we go!" Kushina grinned. She turned the device around and held it down so that Aoi could see it. "Don't you look cute?"

On the boxy object there was a square shape with the image of a pikachu frozen and trapped in it.

_:…Ah! That's me!:_

"I think that picture turned out really nice." Kushina sighed, looked up at the sky, and then glanced at something on her wrist. "Only an hour until dinner. I should get going…"

_:You're leaving?:_ Aoi was dismayed. _:But you just got here.:_

"You have a nice little island out here," the woman said as she walked away from the lake towards the edge of the island. "It's a good thing it's so hard to get to otherwise it would be overrun with tourists."

Aoi timidly followed after the woman. _:Why not stay longer?:_

"Perhaps I'll come back here after the seminar," the woman mused aloud. "If I have time; I want to get some good quality fishing time in, too."

_:What's so great about fishing?:_ Aoi sulked. _:It's a lot more fun over here. I haven't introduced you to anyone yet.:_

The red-haired woman picked her way up the gentle slope to the cliffs at the island's edge. There she released the pelipper and climbed aboard him again. Aoi perched on a nearby rock and drooped.

"You be careful now," Kushina said with a smile and a wave. "No more getting swept away from your island, okay? Bye-bye!"

And then she and the pelipper soared off the cliff and out over the sea.

The pikachu sat on the rock and watched them until they faded out of sight.

_Why…?_

_ :So that was a human, huh?:_

Aoi flinched and turned to find the young male who'd been arguing with his father earlier. His eyes were sharp and a blue several shades lighter than her own. He boredly stared out over the sea in the direction that Kushina had vanished in while he tossed a shuca berry from paw to paw.

_:I don't see why the elders are so worried about them,:_ he remarked. _:It didn't seem to be all that dangerous. It needed a pelipper to __**fly**__!:_

_ :Oh shut up!:_ Aoi snapped.

_:Ooo, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the nest this morning,:_ he teased.

Aoi glared at him and sprinted off back into the forest, hoping to lose him.

_Stupid boy!_

_

* * *

_

Kushina's timing was excellent. Just as she and Briny made it back to the mainland shore, it started to rain. By the time she returned to the hotel it was starting to storm in earnest.

_Heh, well they do call this jungle a rainforest for a reason…_

She squeezed all the excess water from her hair, toweled dry, and then cracked out the hair dryer to finish the job. While she worked on her long, red tresses, she focused on what she needed to do for the seminar, which started tomorrow. It was a lot more productive than thinking on how sad and dejected the pikachu had looked when she left Thunder Island.

_I didn't come here to catch new pokémon,_ she reminded herself. _I certainly didn't come here to make an exception to my personal rule. As cute as Aoi is and as strange as her eyes are, she isn't shiny…_

When she'd been younger, she thought the only oddly colored pokémon possible was a red gyarados. Ever since it had been revealed to science that such a creature was not just a myth red gyarados were popular in movies and television (either a gyarados was dyed somehow, or footage would be edited to change its color). But when Naruto had brought Demon home she'd looked into information on other "shiny" pokémon.

Some were less than impressive. The difference in color was subtle and it was only really noticeable when they were photographed beside an average member of their species. But some were quite astonishing—a shiny charizard for instance, which was black instead of orange.

_I wouldn't mind breaking my rule for something like that,_ she thought as she put away her hair dryer and picked up her brush. _I don't think anyone could fault me for that… And anyone who would, would just be jealous!_

Shaking out her hair, she went about dressing for dinner. She would meet the professor down in the hotel restaurant within the hour. And after they'd eaten, it was time to make final preparations for the seminar.

_Hopefully all that science babble won't put me to sleep tomorrow…_


	5. Part V

**Surf's Up!**

_Part V_

Ando loved his life. He had two older brothers so there was no pressure to carry on the family legacy. He'd found a fantastic place to live here on the shores of the Turquoise Sea in Jungle Country. And his lifestyle was a dream-come-true.

He was a beach bum, pure and simple. He lived in a tiny house that was little more than a shack down the beach from Cove Town and all the tourists. He fished for fun, and sometimes dinner. He flirted with all the pretty tourist girls that came from all over the world for the sun and surf, and got lucky every now and then. And for money, he had his pokémon…

A thump on his leg startled him from his afternoon nap and he sat up in his well-worn folding chair and glanced down to see his phanpy and zigzagoon presenting him with items they had acquired through their _pick up_ ability.

"A _star piece_ and a _big pearl_?" Ando grinned. "Nice work guys, these'll fetch some good cash." He took the items from them, tossed them a few treats from his pocket, and waved them off. "Now hunt up some more lost treasures!"

His little treasure hunters—whose cuteness allowed them to double as chick magnets—cried in joy and bounded off to exercise their _pick up_ skills again. Catching Stripes the zigzagoon and Sniffy the phanpy had been the two best investments he'd ever made. The bulk of his cash came from selling the odds and ends that they brought home.

And on occasion he would supplement this income with the proceeds from engaging dumb tourists in pokémon battles. Kappa his golduck, Palmer his tropius, Bear his typhlosion, and Chatterbox his chatot were handy battlers in a pinch. But to insure his victories he was careful to suck in losers who had no skill or weak pokémon…or both.

_I love my life,_ he sighed as he settled deeper into his chair. _Beautiful weather, good fishing, and all the exotic women I could ever want…_

"Just another day in paradise," he chuckled and readjusted his sunglasses.

"You're such lazy bum, Ando."

"Lazy bum!" Chatterbox squawked from his perch on a branch over Ando's head. "Lazy bum!"

"Shut up," Ando grunted at his tropical bird monster, then lazily turned to see who his visitor was. "Oh…hey there, Arashi."

It wasn't often that someone from Whirlpool Country came to see him. People of _Uzu no Kuni_ tended to stay there, either out of an inability to leave or fear of the wider world hidden by fierce nationalistic pride, and if anyone _did_ leave they tended to return for the same reasons. The only person (besides himself) that he personally knew had ditched Whirlpool Country behind for good was Kushina.

"You escortin' your cousin to another foreign Contest?"

"Yeah," Arashi grunted, running a hand through his dark hair. "Akane and her Contests… At least this place is nice."

"You could always move out here," Ando offered the older man. "There's plenty of room out here—plenty of beaches to comb for lost treasure."

"Did you ever grow up?" Arashi grunted.

"Did you?" Ando cheerfully countered. "Heh, at least I don't live with my parents anymore."

The other man glared. "Shut up you bum!"

_Ooo, struck a nerve…_ Ando smirked.

"Anyways, have you seen her?" Arashi grumbled disinterestedly.

"Have I seen who?" Ando asked, even though he knew exactly who his visitor was referring to.

"Kushina," Arashi muttered darkly. "I can't believe Kenshin made me promise to ask this…"

"Your sister?" Ando said thoughtfully. "As a matter of fact…I _have_ seen your sister!"

"I—what?" His guest was visibly thrown for a loop.

"I saw your sister," Ando grinned. "Four or five days ago. I bet you twenty bucks she's still around here somewhere."

Arashi gave him a suspicious look. "…I don't believe you."

"Okay, disbeliever," Ando sighed and laboriously climbed out of his very comfortable chair. "Let's go swimming through the tourists and see if we can't find the elusive Kushina Uzumaki, eh? I bet you wouldn't recognize her if you saw her anyway."

"Whatever," Arashi grunted. "It'll kill some time while Akane practices, at least."

"See, there's a bright side!" Ando waved lazily towards his humble home. "Kappa, Palmer, Bear, guard my castle while I'm gone."

His golduck gave him a lazy, sloppy salute, while Bear just yawned and Palmer kept on perfecting his impersonation of a small fruit tree.

"Guard my castle!" Chatterbox cried and fluttered down to land on Ando's shoulder. "Guard my castle!"

Ando rolled his eyes at his chatot's antics. "Maybe I shoulda named you 'Birdbrain' instead…"

"You look like a pirate," Arashi remarked.

"Arr!" Ando replied.

"Gah! Why did she ever hang out with you?!" the older man sputtered.

Ando marched down the beach towards the distant hotels. "Let's find her and ask her!"

* * *

_:You're out here again?:_

Aoi flicked her ear, but otherwise failed to react to his question.

Home was a wonderful place, but it almost felt…small…now that she had seen and experienced things beyond it. Every day since she had returned she found herself returning to the cliffs that faced the mainland. She'd find a good place to sit and stare and wonder…

_:If you miss that human so much, why not just go find it instead of moping around here?:_

She sat up and turned to glare at him. He just looked back at her with his sky-blue eyes. The only movement was the yellow shuca berry that he lazily tossed from paw to paw.

What he suggested wasn't that simple. She had full confidence that she could traverse the sea and reach the distant shore, but what if she couldn't find Kushina? What if Kushina had gone away from the beach (the mainland was a _huge_ place) and some other human attacked her like that small human had? If she couldn't rejoin the woman and wanted to come back to the island there was no way for her to scale the cliffs. Unless…

_:Have you ever been to the mainland?:_ she asked the male.

He paused in his berry tossing. _:No, why?:_

_ :I was just wondering,:_ she shrugged. _:You seemed like the type brave enough to visit it, but I suppose I was wrong…:_

_ :I am brave!:_ he insisted, stomping his foot. _:I've been close to shore before!:_

_ :How close?:_

_ :I saw the trees on the beach and a boat,:_ he boasted.

_:But you've never touched the sand there.:_

_ :Well…no.:_ He tugged at one of his ears in embarrassment.

_:Then it doesn't count.:_

He squeaked in anger. _:I'm brave! I'll go to the mainland right now and show you!:_ He clenched the green stem of his berry in his teeth and grabbed her arm. _:C'mon, I'll show ya!:_

Aoi hid a grin.

_Perfect!_

_

* * *

_

Kushina sighed in contentment as she leisurely strolled off the beach towards the local pokémon center. The seminar had been long and (for her) boring, but she'd survived. Now all that was left was vacation time until their stay was up.

With the professor checking out one of Cove Town's spas, she was to check her e-mail account. She'd meant to do it earlier in the week but she'd kept getting side-tracked by something or other. Now she was finally going to do it and nothing was going to distract her this time!

_I wonder if Naruto's written me about his match with this Kabuto guy…_

She rounded a corner—

—And bounced off a man walking in the opposite direction.

"Sorry," she apologized, averting her eyes out of embarrassment.

"It's no trouble," the man chuckled. "I love running into pretty women."

Kushina glanced up, almost expecting to see Ando again even though it wasn't his voice. And she found it wasn't Ando's face either. But for some reason he sort of looked familiar.

"…Thanks," she said slowly. _I think._

"You are very welcome," he smiled.

"Well…I'm going to go now."

She edged around him to continue walking…and he followed her.

"So where are you from?" he asked. "I'd love to visit a place that produces such pretty women."

"I live in Fire Country," she told him, "which is as specific as I'm going to get because I am engaged, and even if I wasn't you are trying way too hard."

"You're engaged?" That almost drove him off. "I don't see any ring."

"I don't have one yet," she shrugged. "I'm horrible to shop for; I don't really do jewelry."

"Oh…"

She was just about to ditch the pest when Ando jogged up with a couple of blue slushy treats in his hands.

"There you are!" he said to the man. "I was wondering where you…" Ando turned and raised his eyebrow at her. "Hello there!" He looked back at the stranger. "Who have you met?"

"We haven't exchanged names," the dark-haired man replied. "She's engaged."

"Engaged?" Ando looked back at her. "You only said you were 'taken'."

"Does it matter how 'taken' I am?" Kushina huffed. "I have a man and he isn't you, Ando." She gestured to the mystery man. "Who's your friend?"

"My friend?" Ando sniggered, giggled, and then broke down into body-shaking laughs. "_My_ friend! Hahaha!"

Kushina frowned. "What's so funny? Please, clue me in on this joke."

"He's not my friend," the other man scowled. "He's my little sister's friend…somehow."

She arched a red eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah," he grunted. "My runaway little sister, who no one has seen or heard from for years…"

Kushina started to make a reply, stopped, and narrowed her eyes. "What is your name?"

"Arashi Uzumaki," he replied, a shadow of a smile briefly flitting across his face, "at your service."

All that she could think in response to this bit of information was: _**Ew!**_

"You creep!" she hissed and punched her brother in the shoulder. "You hit on me!"

Ando had collapsed to the sidewalk and was almost crying he was laughing so hard. "This…this is awesome!"

"Awesome!" a chatot squawked from its perch on a nearby window ledge. "Awesome!"

Arashi looked lost. "What?"

Kushina clenched her teeth and stole one of the slushy drinks, which thankfully hadn't spilled from Ando's laughter.

"Hey," Ando wheezed in protest.

"I didn't steal yours," she assured him, and jerked her thumb towards her clueless brother. "I stole his."

"What for?" Arashi frowned.

"Emotional damages," Kushina answered.

"Eh?"

"You hit on your own sister," Ando snickered, rubbing at his eyes with his free hand. "This is so awesome!"

"I…"

Arashi stopped and stared at her. Kushina glared back as she drank his icy drink. Ando's laughter finally petered out as he ran out of breath and was left wheezing down on the ground.

"…You're old," Kushina said, breaking the several minutes of silence.

The last time she'd seen him (any of her family) she'd been eleven and he'd been a young teenager. Now he was a full grown man—her age plus a few years. He almost looked like an entirely different person now.

"I'm not old," Arashi sputtered.

"Yeah, you are," she retorted. "You have some gray hairs."

"No I don't!" he denied while self-consciously touching the short hair above his temples, which was sprinkled with a few suspiciously pale strands.

"Yeah you do."

"I don't!" he snapped. "And what about you? What's with the long hair and," he gestured towards her chest, "when did you grow those?!"

"It's called puberty," she shot back. "And I like my hair the way it is. Don't you like my hair, big brother?"

Arashi's mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish before he snatched the half-consumed slushy drink from her hands and busied himself with drinking it.

"You guys are so funny," Ando panted as he wobbled back up to his feet.

"So funny!" the chatot agreed as it landed on Ando's shoulder. "So funny!"

"Ando, gag that bird before I roast it for dinner," Arashi growled. He stirred the dregs of his slush with his straw. "So," he glanced to Kushina, "what brings you to Cove Town?"

"A working vacation," she answered. "What brings _you_ here?"

"Chaperoning Akane on her Contest circuit," Arashi told her.

Kushina scanned the street and intersection, and found nothing but a thin mix of locals and tourists going on about their business. "Weird, I don't see Akane anywhere. If you're her chaperone, where is she?"

"She's practicing in the Contest Hall," he muttered. "She'll be at it for a couple of hours at least. I've seen her routines a million times—I can't stand to watch it any more than I have to."

"I could stand to watch her a million times," Ando commented with a lecherous smirk.

"Keep talking like that and I'll force-feed you a knuckle sandwich," Arashi promised.

Ando mimed locking his lips with an invisible key and then throwing it away.

"Now keep quiet," Arashi said, and then jabbed a finger at Ando's chatot. "You, too!"

"What, I can't ask your sister about the guy she's going to marry?" Ando innocently inquired.

Arashi wheeled around with a hint of panic in his dark green eyes. "Tell me you were joking when you claimed to be engaged."

"No, I wasn't joking," Kushina said. "Is there something wrong with me being engaged?"

"Yes," Arashi answered. "We haven't checked this guy out for you."

Kushina blinked. "…You don't have to. I wouldn't have accepted his proposal if he wasn't a good guy."

"Oh, we have to," her brother argued. "Akane has found The One three times so far. One was a degenerate gambler who was already deep in debt, another was an alcoholic, and the third was a control-freak who knocked around his old girlfriends."

"I'm not Akane," she said darkly. "And he's not any of her ex-boyfriends."

"You don't know that," Arashi insisted.

Kushina snarled and pulled one of her pokéballs out of her bag. "Let's settle this like adults."

"No," he shook his head. "I don't fight girls."

Her eyes darkened. "What, are you afraid that a girl might beat you?"

"I don't like making girls cry," he explained.

"Wuss," she accused. "What about you, Ando? Are you scared of girly tears, too?"

"Naw," Ando muttered as he adjusted his ever-present sunglasses. "I'll battle you if you want. No money stakes; a nice friendly match. I know just the place."

"Done," Kushina agreed with a sharp nod. "Lead on."

_Stupid Arashi-nii-san!_ she thought savagely as she followed after the beach bum. _Hopefully kicking Ando's butt will be a good enough substitute for beating stupid, stupid big brother!_


	6. Part VI

**Surf's Up!**

_Part VI_

Kushina glared over the expanse of beach sand as she waited for Ando to get his act together. Her childhood pal had led her and her brother to a deserted stretch of beach near where he lived. While she waited and Arashi made himself comfortable on the trunk of a toppled palm tree, he gathered his beasts which roamed free of any confinement.

"So," Arashi asked while he studied one of his pokéballs, "why did you stop sending postcards?"

"I stopped traveling," Kushina answered while she fought the urge to pace in anticipation. "I got a fixed address and started sending letters instead."

Her brother stared at her. "What letters?"

"What do you mean: 'what letters?'!" she snarled. "I sent at least one a year to the same address I sent all of the postcards!"

"I don't remember a single letter," Arashi said.

"The postal system must be broken then," Kushina growled.

_This is bad,_ she knew. _They're all completely out of touch with my life. And with Arashi freaking out for no reason with me getting married, how bad is it going to get when they find out about Naruto?_

"Okay," Ando called out as he strolled onto the makeshift battlefield with a zigzagoon, phanpy, tropius, and typhlosion following after him in addition to his golduck and chatot. "We're ready. No money stakes…any other rules?"

"Three monster limit, no substitutions," she replied.

"Quick and dirty," Ando smirked. "Flip a coin to see who goes first?"

"No need," Kushina said and cracked open one of her own monster spheres, unleashing Crusher onto the sands. "I'm not afraid to make the first move."

Ando chuckled. "Palmer, you're up buddy."

The tropius lumbered out in front of Ando, its palm frond wings stirring slightly in the breeze washing out to the sea. It was the smart move to pit a grass-type against a water pokémon like Crusher. But Kushina wasn't overly concerned; her mind was firmly focused on kicking Ando's behind.

"Crusher, show that tropius your best _scary face_," Kushina instructed.

Her feraligatr obediently twisted his already fearsome face into something grotesque and frightening, which put a severe crimp in the flying plant monster's speed.

"Interesting," Ando muttered, puzzled. "Palmer, let's crank you up with _sunny day_."

The tropius glowed and the sunlight—already bright and tropical—intensified around them…and then the tree-like dinosaur creature flinched.

_That's not the effect of __**chlorophyll**__…_ "Speed up with _agility_."

Crusher shook out his limbs and then raced towards his foe with boosted speed.

"_Magical leaf_!" Ando snapped, his laid-back air quickly disintegrating.

Glowing, razor-sharp leaves burst from the base of the tropius's wing-leaves and unerringly flew towards the charging feraligatr. There was no point in trying to dodge them so Kushina didn't waste her breath on it. Sometimes a certain amount of damage was the price for a victory.

"_Ice fang_!"

Crusher grunted in pain as the leaves cut into his hide, but he didn't back down and sank his super-cooled fangs into the tropius's sinuous neck.

"Damn it," Ando cursed quietly. "Break loose with _stomp_!"

The tropius bellowed and lashed out, slamming its foot deep into the feraligatr's gut which dislodged Crusher's cold jaws and knocked him backwards.

"_Slash _and _ice fang_," Kushina instructed.

Her feraligatr immediately retaliated, clawing the tropius in the chest and then biting his foe on the other side of its neck with ice-cold fangs. Palmer groaned and slumped to the sand in defeat while Crusher loomed over him, panting. Ando grimaced and had to dig around in his pockets for the pokéball that he needed to pull his tropius off the field.

"Okay…" Ando tapped his chin thoughtfully for a moment before deciding. "Kappa, you're up."

His golduck looked a bit hesitant after watching his buddy get pounded, but he took the battlefield and slipped into a ready stance.

"Crusher, use _crunch_," Kushina ordered.

"_Aqua jet_," Ando said with a smirk.

Kappa shrouded himself in water and exploded forward with tremendous speed. The golduck crashed into Crusher before the feraligatr could react, bowling him over. Coughing and wheezing, Crusher managed to catch his foe by the shoulders before Kappa could back off and laid a vicious _crunch_ attack on him.

"_Zen headbutt_," Ando said, still smirking.

Blue psychic energy gathered at the crown of the golduck's head before he slammed it into Crusher's body. The feraligatr staggered…and collapsed. Kushina was a bit surprised that he'd fallen so quickly; she figured that he could take at least one more good hit before folding.

_I need to remember to look up what abilities tropius can have,_ she thought, recalling how the plant monster had seemed almost pained by the bright sunlight even though it looked strong.

"Alright," Kushina grinned dangerously as she called Crusher back. "It's time to smack you down!" She selected another pokéball. "Now it's—"

_"Pika!"_

Kushina blinked and found a female pikachu had skittered onto the battlefield placing itself between Kappa and herself.

"…Um?"

"That's not yours?" Ando asked, intrigued. "Is it wild, then?"

The pikachu turned around to wave at her and noted its blue eyes—

_Aoi, what are you doing back here?!_

_

* * *

_

Aoi's enthusiasm waned a bit when she saw Kushina's shocked expression.

_She's not happy to see me?_

It hadn't been easy getting back to the mainland. After persuading her male companion to help her, she had to keep needling him to make sure that he stayed with her while she searched for the human woman. Without him she had no way to get around the cliffs of the home island, and if she couldn't find Kushina she didn't want to stay on the mainland.

Just as he was about to leave her in spite of her jabs at his bravery, they came across the fight. They watched from the trees as Kushina's water monster took down the grass monster with a few powerful attacks. When the toothy beast was bested by the blue duck creature, Aoi took her chance, determined to be helpful and prove her worth.

Now it seemed like it was all a big mistake.

"If it's wild," the man commanding the monster duck said, "I wanna catch it. Pikachu are serious chick magnets."

"Ando," Kushina growled. "…No, I saw her first!"

"Winner takes the pikachu," Ando smirked. "Kappa, _fury swipes_!"

_:Sure thing, boss!:_ Kappa croaked and jogged towards Aoi with the claws on his webbed hands bared and ready.

"_Thunder wave_!"

Aoi blasted a burst of electricity just strong enough to cause paralysis, but still suffered from one blow of _fury swipes_. It hurt really bad and she quivered in pain. But she would be brave like Kushina's other monster and not give up.

"Now _thunderbolt_ him!" Kushina commanded.

The pikachu unleashed her electricity on her foe. Kappa withstood the first _thunderbolt_ but Aoi took him out with her second. The paralyzed duck monster fell over, swirly-eyed.

_:Ow…:_

_ :I did good, right?:_ Aoi asked, looking back to Kushina. _:That was good?:_

"That was a close one," Kushina muttered and waved her over. "Now if you'd just come over here—"

"Ah, ah, ah!" Ando scolded and wagged his finger. "No substitutions, remember? You used the pikachu; that's your number two." The man grinned nastily. "Sniffy!"

A little blue monster with stumpy limbs, floppy ears, and a long nose bounded out in front of him.

_:It's my turn! It's my turn!:_

"_Rollout_!"

_:Here I come!:_

Sniffy curled up into a ball and tumbled at high speed right at Aoi. She instinctively lashed out with her electricity, but her _thunderbolt_ had no effect. Her lightning just bounced off the rolling attacker, and then he hit her.

And it hurt.

_:Ow,:_ she wheezed, trying to shake it off.

But there wasn't much time to recover as Sniffy, still spinning, rolled around and lined up for another attack. Aoi again tried to stop him with a _thunderbolt_, but he tumbled on without feeling the electricity. And then he hit again…harder.

_Why isn't it working?!_ Aoi wondered in panic.

"Electricity doesn't work on ground types," Kushina sighed. "All you can do is _quick attack_ him."

Sniffy rolled around again, spinning even faster as he closed the distance. If he hit her any harder, she was sure that she would faint. If she fainted, she would lose, and she needed to win to prove her worth.

_If my lightning won't work…_ She wobbled upright and gathered her strength for her best attack. _:Take this!:_

_

* * *

_

Kushina was resigned to losing this round. She'd meant to use Hikari, and the lanturn's water attacks would've handily crushed Ando's phanpy. But Aoi, as a pure electric type, could only triumph if she was many levels higher (which she wasn't) and had learned a special attack like _grass knot_.

But then, as the phanpy closed in for a third round of _rollout_, the pikachu glowed faintly blue. A wave rushed in from the sea, curled around the pikachu, and then gushed forward into the attacking ground monster. When the water washed back out to sea, Sniffy was flattened on the ground with swirly eyes while Aoi stayed standing and panting.

"…Wha?" Ando sputtered.

"What the hell?" Arashi muttered.

Kushina blinked, once, twice, and then pointed at Ando with a wild grin. "Ha!"

"You cheated!" Ando snapped as he struggled to gather his wits.

"How did I cheat?" Kushina snickered.

"Pikachus can't do that!" He whined.

"Obviously they can," she smirked. "Why don't you go to the library and look in the book: In the Yellow Forest…. It's got lots of nice pictures and simple words so you're sure to understand it."

Ando flashed her a rude hand gesture and gathered up his fainted phanpy before slinking off the field.

"Hehehe," Kushina giggled, unconcerned, and knelt down by the pikachu. "That was awesome!"

Aoi, though tired, was clearly pleased with the praise.

"Now I know I left you on Thunder Island," she said. "So you came all the way back here? You didn't want to stay with all your friends and family?"

The pikachu hopped into her lap.

"Okay…" _If she really can manipulate water…I can make an exception for that._ "Okay."

"What was that in the opening round?" Arashi asked from over her shoulder. "You never struck me as the type to do anything besides full-on attack."

"I hang out with the best," Kushina shrugged with a smug little smile. She gathered Aoi in her arms and stood up. "A few ideas rub off on me every now and then. If this fight had happened just after I left Whirlpool, it would all be about attacking."

"You hang out with the best," he repeated.

"I do."

Silence fell between them as tiny waves brushed against the shore nearby.

"Will you ever come home?" her brother asked.

"I've thought about visiting," she answered.

"But you won't stay," he said.

"No."

"Of course you won't." He walked past her and down the beach towards Cove Town. "I need to get back to babysitting Akane."

She watched his back retreat from her sight…and she stuck her tongue out at it.

_Why did I have to run into Arashi? Why not Kenshin? He was always the best…if a bit boring and dull._

Kushina stayed out on the distant beach for a while longer. With Arashi gone and Ando presumably off healing his battered beasts, she was alone. Rubbing Aoi's ear, she stared out at the placid tropical sea and thought.

_If I do go back, it'll be after I marry. They'll have to suck it up and accept him then… Hopefully Minato won't get any grand ideas of visiting Dad and asking for his blessings or anything._

_ But how to introduce Naruto without lots of chaos, yelling, and ugliness?_

She made a face.

_And what the hell happened to all those letters I sent?! I put time and effort into writing those! Stamps cost money…and it's a pain to go out and buy more when you run out._

Something out over the water caught Aoi's attention and the pikachu called out and waved.

"Eh?" Kushina squinted. "What's that?"

It looked like photos she'd seen of ball lightning…sort of. Whatever it was, it was yards and yards out over the water. The yellow orb zoomed in nearly a straight line in the general direction of Thunder Island.

At Aoi's cries, the lightning orb made a loop before continuing on its way.

"Hmm…"

She thought about the children's book that Naruto had once loved so much. She thought about the pictures in the book where the little pikachus would ride cute little surf boards. She thought about the other pictures where the little pikachus would fly with the aid of colorful party balloons…

"Nah."

Kushina turned away from the sea now that the odd light was out of sight and headed for Cove Town and its pokémon center.

_Surfing pikachu are believable, but a real __**flying**__ pikachu?_ She snorted at the thought. _That's just ridiculous!_


End file.
